Enharmonic Equivalence as Subtext in Two Wolf Lieder

Enharmonic Equivalence as Subtext in Two Wolf Lieder

In The Dark Shadow:
Enharmonic Equivalence as Subtext in Two Wolf Lieder
Robert T. Kelley
October 2003
Abstract
Chromatic chord usage in many of Hugo Wolf’s songs often results in progressions that require
enharmonic reinterpretation of certain notes in order to return to the original key. In two songs,
“Und steht Ihr früh am Morgen auf vom Bette” from the Italianisches Liederbuch and “In dem
Schatten meiner Locken” from the Spanisches Liederbuch, repeated enharmonic progressions result
from chordal root motion by ascending major thirds. Because of the phenomenological confusion inherent in enharmonic progressions (Has the music moved to another tonal region, or has it returned
to where it started?), such progressions can play an important role in the interpretive process. I
suggest an interpretation of these enharmonic shifts, and demonstrate how such enharmonic progressions can form a structural musical basis for the perception of a richer subtextual meaning of
text and music.
1
Introduction
Hugo Wolf’s chromatic harmony has been the subject of many analytical studies.1 One feature of
chromatic harmony is the use of harmonic progressions that divide the octave evenly, or similar
progressions that leave the main key area and return through an enharmonic “back door.” The
nineteenth- and twentieth-century composers who use this type of progression exploit the twelvetone chromatic universe that provides for this enharmonic equivalence—a musical realm where C]
can stand in for D[ despite the distinction between them in musical notation. This enharmonic
“exchange value” would in the early twentieth century become an essential ingredient in the twelvetone free atonal style of the Second Viennese School.
In tonal music, however, where functional harmony controls the musical syntax, C] and D[
play different functional roles; and their equivalence on the piano keyboard, and in the design of
most other instruments, is simply a practical matter of temperament. Temperament, in terms
of the tonal language, is a compromise based on the practical consideration that an instrument
should be playable with a reasonable amount of facility without having a different fingering system
for each major or minor key. Because Wolf’s musical language was decidedly tonal, despite his
reliance upon highly chromatic harmonic materials, it will be revealing to examine his music from
both perspectives—one that embraces enharmonic equivalence as well as one that enforces tonal
strictness with regard to diatonic spelling. My approach is biased toward the tonal viewpoint, at
1
One such study is Deborah Stein’s text on the subject.
1
least at the surface level. I will not embrace enharmonic equivalence initially, but I will allow for
the possibility that a larger view of the piece will require acceptance of enharmonic equivalence for
tonal understanding.
In my analysis of two songs, “Und steht Ihr früh am Morgen auf vom Bette” from the Italianisches Liederbuch, and “In dem Schatten meiner Locken” from the Spanisches Liederbuch, I will show
how mentally differentiating enharmonically equivalent chords or pitches can help to add a layer
of meaning to the interaction of music and text. There is a phenomenological confusion inherent
in enharmonic progressions. Specifically, the listener is forced to ask whether the music has moved
to another tonal region, or whether it has returned to where it started. In the case of the two
Wolf songs, the enharmonic progression is by ascending major thirds. While with this progression
it is easy enough to hear the last chord as being the same as the first, it is also easy to imagine
how one might lose track of tonic if each of these chords is expanded into a key area in a piece of
music. This perceptual ambiguity between moving away from and returning to tonic is the key to
my interpretation of this music; it represents a “hermeneutic window” where a dramatic subtext
can enter into the musical interpretation.
2
How a Woman’s Beauty Can Transform Nature
In the song “Und steht Ihr früh am Morgen auf vom Bette,” Wolf sets a text by Paul Heyse. Figure
1 gives my analysis of the harmonic structure as encapsulated in a transformational network, and
an English translation of the text appears below it.
Some explanation of the notation used here will make the organization clear. Each chord appears
in parentheses, using the note name of its root for identification. Chord quality is represented by
standard notation involving capitalization of the note name and the addition of symbols for other
chord features such as sevenths. For ease of reading, the chord roots are spelled as they appear
in the score, even if my diatonic reading would indicate a different note name for the pitch class.
After the chord designation appears an Arabic numeral indicating the level of analysis. The higher
the number, the closer the chords match the actual musical surface structure.
The ordered pair of numbers accompanying each arrow shows the transposition level of the
harmonic progression’s root motion. The first of the two numbers gives the transposition in semitones. Thus, the arrow on level two between E and A[ indicates that the root motion is by four
semitones when moving from the E chord to the A[ chord. The second of the two numbers indicates
how many scale steps are required to transpose the first chord to the second chord. For example,
between the E and A[ chords, the first chord is transformed into the second by transposition up
two diatonic steps (a major third), despite its representation in the music (and in the letter names
in the graph) as a diminished fourth. My adherence to diatonic strictness dictates that root motion
must be a major third here because a progression by the chromatic interval of a diminished fourth
makes little tonal sense.
The ordered pair notation can thus be translated into standard tonal interval names. To obtain
the generic interval size, add one to the second number of the pair, so that zero will be a unison,
one will be a second, two will be a third, and so on. The quality of the interval—major, minor,
augmented, or diminished—is encapsulated in the first number of the pair, but is dependent upon
the second number. For example, an interval of a second that has one semitone is a minor second, a
second that has two semitones is a major second, a second that has three semitones is an augmented
second, and so forth.
2
Figure 1: Transformational network describing Wolf, “Und steht Ihr früh am Morgen auf vom Bette.”
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3
Und steht Ihr früh am Morgen auf vom Bette,
Scheucht Ihr vom Himmel alle Wolken fort,
Die Sonne lockt Ihr auf die Berge dort,
Und Engelein erscheinen um die Wette
Und bringen Schuh und Kleider Euch sofort.
Dann, wenn Ihr ausgeht in die heil’ge Mette,
So zieht Ihr alle Menschen mit Euch fort,
Und wenn Ihr naht der benedeiten Stätte,
So zündet Euer Blick die Lampen an.
Weihwasser nehmt Ihr, macht des Kreuzes Zeichen
Und netzet Eure weiße Stirn sodann
Und neiget Euch und beugt die Knie ingleichen—
O wie holdselig steht Euch alles an!
Wie hold und selig hat Euch Gott begabt,
Die Ihr der Schönheit Kron empfangen habt!
Wie hold und selig wandelt Ihr im Leben;
Der Schönheit Palme ward an Euch gegeben.
(5,3)
(9,5)
(6,4)
(5,3)
And when you rise early from your bed,
You banish every cloud from the sky,
You lure the sun onto those hills,
And angels compete to
Bring your shoes and clothes.
Then, when you go out to Holy Mass,
You draw everyone along with you,
And when you near the blessed place,
Your gaze lights up the lamps.
You take holy water, make the sign of the cross
And moisten your white brow,
And you bow and bend the knee—
Oh, how beautifully it all becomes you!
How sweetly, blessedly has God endowed you,
Who have received the crown of beauty.
How sweetly, blessedly you walk through life;
The palm of beauty was bestowed on you.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
In Figure 1, The transformation between levels from the E-major tonic chord at level one to the
initial tonic chord in level two is by (0,0). The ordered pair (0,0) between the levels, then, indicates
that no transposition operation has taken place. The surface-level E chord ascends by three major
thirds to the E chord that completes the cycle. To verify that these three transformations return us
to an E-major chord, we add the first numbers in the ordered pairs. Four (from E to A[) plus four
(from A[ to C) plus four (from C to E) is twelve half steps. As in any twelve-tone transposition
operation, the operation is addition modulo twelve. The result of our addition, twelve, thus reduces
to zero because of octave equivalence. Hence we know that, at least in terms of twelve-tone equal
temperament, both the first and fourth chords are E-major triads.
If there is no enharmonic shift involved, we can also expect all of the second numbers in the
ordered pairs to add up to zero, when reduced modulo seven. Here, the numbers two, two, and two
add only to six. This tells us that we do not finish on the same diatonic scale step as where we
began. In this mod-seven representation of scale-step intervals the transposition operation T6 is
equivalent to T−1 (just like in the familiar mod-twelve universe T11 is equivalent to T−1 ). We are
now one diatonic step lower than the initial E chord, and thus theoretically on D]] instead of E.
The arrow that returns from this second “E” back to the E on level one thus cannot be (0,0). We
must transpose up one diatonic step (by a diminished second) to return to the E-major triad on
level one. This explains the transformation by zero half steps and one scale step accompanying that
arrow. The low-numbered levels in these graphs, then, show how, at some degree of abstraction,
certain chords that are spelled differently at the musical surface are equivalent at this more abstract
level.
This process of reconciling surface-level transformations with the large-level tonic chord will
therefore generate all arrows in these graphs that point from a higher-numbered level back to
a lower-numbered level. When chords on the two levels are diatonically different, they will be
indicated by a transposition with zero as the first number and one or six as the second number. An
ordered pair of (0,1) indicates that the progression has drifted down by a diatonic step, and must
be shifted back up to be completely equivalent to the starting pitch level. An ordered pair of (0,6)
indicates that the progression has drifted up by a diatonic step, and must be shifted back down
to be completely equivalent to the starting pitch level. In the present case, both songs analyzed
here only drift downward diatonically, and therefore (0,6) will not be seen in the transformational
graphs.
The text of the song concerns the aspects of a woman’s daily activities that underscore her
beauty, and how her beauty seemingly affects or enhances aspects of the world around her as well.
The final four lines of the poem focus on how God has blessed the woman with her beauty, and
thus has accomplished great works through her beauty. The immediacy of the simple texture,
dominated by arpeggiated major chords and pedal point, underscores the primary focus of the
poem’s description: beauty, as found in both the woman and nature. The repeated progression by
ascending major third mirrors the positive transformations that the woman’s beauty effects upon
the morning: clearing the skies, bringing the sun into the heavens, drawing angels to her, and
brightening the lamps at church.
I would be satisfied to leave my interpretation there, as indeed the simplicity and directness
of both the music and text are, in my mind, the source of their beauty. The fact that the major
third cycle results in diatonic drift, however, can further enhance one’s understanding of the poem’s
structure. Although the poem is a single stanza, Wolf’s musical setting clearly organizes the text
into three sections. The first involves rising in the morning, the second moves the setting to the
church, and the third serves to summarize the text, providing a reason for the miraculous effects
4
that the woman’s beauty has on her surroundings. Whereas the first two sections convey a storyline,
describing transformations in nature, the third section is more static, having arrived at a dramatic
plateau built on the woman’s beauty.
This structure is contradicted somewhat by the harmonic activity, where the only point at which
Wolf breaks free from pedal point technique is at the end of the most active parts of the text. There
is a dramatic increase in harmonic rhythm that begins in line 9 and concludes with the authentic
cadence that starts line 14. Perhaps this “harmonic crescendo” in the music signifies a welling up
of emotion on the part of the narrator resulting from the beauty he is describing.
Although the static quality of the music accompanying line 14 is virtually the same as in lines 1
and 6, both the authentic cadence that initiates line 14 and other more complicated factors create
a sense that this part of the music is more static than in lines 1 or 6, just as the text is more
static. In this regard, my transformational graph in Figure 1 clearly shows how diatonic spelling
enhances this musical stasis. Not only does the downward diatonic drift stop around the same
time the harmonic activity increases, but more importantly it seems to “settle down” to the final
diatonic level where it remains during the entire third part of the song. This “settling in,” in my
view, comes from an important musical contrast. The sudden shifts by ascending major third in
the first section cause downward diatonic slips, whereas the more functional progression connecting
C and E at the end of the second section enables a smoother transition into the lowest diatonic
position of the tonic E.
3
Troubled Undercurrents in the Shadows
An even more compelling interpretive insight can result from inspecting the downward diatonic
drift in the song “In dem Schatten”. In this case, the enharmonic progressions musically support
the poem’s dark dramatic subtext. A transformational graph and a translation of the poem appear
in Figure 2. Here analytical level two zig-zags up and down the page to conserve horizontal space.
This visual design places every surface-level instance of B[ on the same horizontal level, with each
digression looping out and back. Aside from this, there is no other significance to the vertical
placement of chords in level two, and the arrows merely indicate the chords’ temporal order.
In the poem, a woman is musing about her relationship with her lover, who has dozed off beside
her. She is concerned about their relationship, and her fears begin to mount three times during
the song. In each case, she tosses off her worries with the words “ah, no” accompanied by a simple
cadential formula. We get the sense that she really does need to address her feelings from the fact
that each stanza moves away from the tonic, and the “ah, no” cadential formula is always in a
foreign key. Each time that the woman shakes off her troubled thoughts it is the piano that must
repeat the cadence in the original key for tonal closure. This fact seems to indicate that the woman
is not bringing her throughts to fruition. Although on first analysis it appears that she is cutting
short her mounting fears by deciding not to wake up her beloved, at a deeper level she herself is
refusing to wake up.
Wolf’s musical setting captures the text’s quite apparent innocence with its dearth of minor
chords and the bouncy piano figuration, which never quite succumbs to the troublesome undercurrents. When one considers the tonal structure from a strictly diatonic perspective, however, the
music also enhances the poem’s darker subtext. The completion of the first enharmonic progression
after the initial “ah, no” cadence is enacted by the piano. At this point, one diatonic step lower, the
woman returns to more innocent thoughts of her hair and her struggle to keep it combed and under
control. We might say that it now seems that she would rather see the enharmonic equivalence
5
than see the tonal universe spiraling downward. By focusing on her hair and not its dark shadow
she maintains tonal control, and no enharmonic shift occurs in the second stanza. Despite her
refusal to allow herself to think about her problems, she still finds herself in a foreign key (D[) at
the end of the second stanza. This time, however, the piano does not return to tonic, and she is
thus compelled to think of the source of her problems: her lover’s complaints.
The second diatonic slip occurs in the middle of the third stanza, just as she brings to mind the
fact that her boyfriend calls her a snake. While this most startling thought might perhaps prove
too difficult for her to ignore, she does manage to return her thoughts to more mundane things.
She does so by convincing herself that everything he said must not be entirely true if he now falls
asleep in the same shadows that caused her to worry. For the third time she sings her cadence in
a foreign key; and then, as before, the piano moves back to tonic, slipping down enharmonically.
Although we have peacefully returned to B[, our diatonic interpretation tells us that the shadows
have not really gone away.
4
Conclusion
The concept of enharmonic equivalence underlies our tonal understanding of all chromatic music,
and thus must play a role in analysis. These two examples show how reading chromatic music
additionally from a strict diatonic perspective can promote even more nuanced interpretations.
The richness afforded by these diatonic analyses offers the possibility of multiple readings, and even
conflicting interpretations. My graphs could certainly support other hermeneutic analyses of these
two songs. In the first song, the idea of enharmonic shift as transfiguration, and in the second
song, the idea of growing darkness with each return of tonic form a more basic interpretation of the
enharmonic progressions—one that can play directly into performance practice without the need
for a specific hermeneutic reading. In this way, maintaining diatonic strictness can be a valuable
technique for enriching the analysis and performance of many chromatic works.
6
Figure 2: Transformational network describing Wolf, “In dem Schatten meiner Locken.”
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7
In dem Schatten meiner Locken
Schlief mir mein Geliebter ein.
Weck ich ihn nun auf? —Ach nein!
In the shadow of my tresses
My beloved has fallen asleep.
Shall I awaken him now? Ah, no!
1
2
3
Sorglich strählt ich meine krausen
Locken täglich in der Frühe,
Doch umsonst ist meine Mühe,
weil die Winde sie zerzausen.
Lockenschatten, Windessausen
Schlüferten den Liebsten ein.
Weck ich ihn nun auf? —Ach nein!
Carefully I comb my ruffled
Locks, early every day;
Yet for nothing is my trouble,
For the wind makes them dishevelled yet again.
The shadows of my tresses, the whispering of the wind,
Have lulled my darling to sleep.
Shall I awaken him now? Ah, no!
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Hören muß ich, wie ihn gräme,
Daß er schmachtet schon so lange,
Daß ihm Leben geb’ und nehme
Diese meine braune Wange,
Und er nennt mich eine Schlange,
Und doch schlief er bei mir ein.
Weck ich ihn nun auf? —Ach nein!
I must listen to him complain
That he pines for me so long,
That life is given and taken away from him
By this, my brown cheek,
And he calls me a snake;
Yet he fell asleep by me.
Shall I awaken him now? Ah, no!
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
/ (G[, 2)
(5,3)
8
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11